Camcorders

Hi,

I'm looking to get a camcorder to film skiing but am a complete newcomer to the camcorder market. I was wondering if anyone has any advice they can share about which format and specific models I should take a look at, or which I should definately avoid!
Looking to spend up to about £350, and needs to be mac compatible.
Thanks for any help.

Personally I bought a Kodak V series digital camera for £130 with video facility and its absolutely brilliant for taking snaps or filming whilst skiing. Should work with a mac no problem, as its one of the easyshare range.
You dont need to spend tons of money unless you are seriously into movie editing.
Ellistine might be your man.

I would echo Tony's advice. Some of the digital cameras make very good quality mpeg. I find it much easier to work with and store smaller mpegs than large files from a camcorder. Of course if you need better quality, that's another matter.

Trencher

How about a 'snow package' or something similar from these people;

http://www.actioncameras.co.uk/acatalog/Ski_Package_.html

I bought a similar product from Samsung which I've always been pleased with although I think there's issues with the Samsung Minikets and Macs.

I would recommend going for a camera that writes to a memory card rather than tapes or DVD's. So much less hassle and they're so cheap these days.

If you've lots of time to kill then also get yourself a decent video editing package like Sony Vegas. It will allow you to while away hours and hours on a 60 second vid!

Also, don't forget that the cold will give the battery life a good kicking so keep the camera in an inside pocket or down your pants or something :D

I wondered what that bulge was, Keith

Don't forget to switch it off first. :oops:

Hi Jimp_85,

I bought a Samsung Mini DV-camcorder VP-D372WH 2 years ago to video the family skiing. Mine is the tape variety, as at the time the quality was/is still better. It's small and light and fits into the inside pocket of my ski jacket.

As regards to MAC compatibility. The DV lead plugs straight into the USB port and is recognised immediately by iMovies. Copying and editing is a breeze, as is burning to iDVD with menus etc. You may have guessed I'm a MAC user. :D
I also use Final Cut Pro software (professional editing software). Using the standard iLife software I really love when dealing with home movies and pictures.

Depending on the MAC you have, processing time to DVD can be anything from 1 hour to 3 hours to compress and burn a 1 hour movie. My MAC is a 2x3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 18 GB of memory, 250GB Hard Drive. One last thing to be aware of is that processing a 1 hour video may take up 10 GBs of disk space for PAL 720x576 (TV Quality).

Whatever you choose, small and light would be your best bet

Glyn

Jimp_85

Get something decent and hand held if you want really good quality.

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/253/333/-/6170118/Samsung-VP-HMX20C-8GB-High-Definition-Flash-Memory-Camcorder/Product.html?searchtype=genre